One week to change your life
by Opaul
Summary: Kataang story. AU style. Rated T for content. The fire nation bomber planes begin bombing the coast. In a twist of fate Aang and Katara become trapped in bomb shelter.
1. Chapter 1

**Kataang story. AU style. Rated T for content. The fire nation bomber planes begin bombing the coast. In a twist of fate Aang and Katara become trapped in bomb shelter.**

Sokka and dad where out working on the fishing boat as always.  
I grabbed another can of tomato soup off the shelf and placed it in the basket. Looking around I think I got everything. I held the recipe up.  
2 cans tomato soup  
1/2-cup milk  
1 small handful of cheese  
3 basil leaves  
3 shakes of un-ground pepper  
1 codfish. (I don't have to buy one of these Dad and Sokka will bring one home)

I know it sounds disgusting but its actually kind of good. I stood up and walked down the deserted iles to the cashier. Most people stay close to home now a days.

Mrs. Wurren is a soft spoken old lady with endless tides of wrinkles. Her hair is still the same shade of strawberry blonde as it was in photo's hanging in Merna's Diner forty-seven years ago.  
"Road Cod Soup again I see," she says as I place my purchases on the contour. I smile back at her. "You know Katara I just don't see how you and your family stomach that stuff."  
"I think it's an acquired taste." I reply. "I'll believe that,"she says.  
She scans and bags everything. I hand her some coins and walk out.  
Spring hasn't quite shrugged off the shadows of winter. I can feel if for my white cotton sleeves don't quite keep out the wind. The sun is shining a little too brightly. Only two or three people are out in the street and the usual rush of cars is gone. Its eerie, the silence, with the fear of bombings making most people stay near their bomb shelters. I miss the liveliness of the Maine Street; people shopping and little kids running around. I stuff the grocery bags in my backpack and hang the it from the handlebars of my mother's old rusted bike.  
The pedals squeak softly as they go round. The town passes by in smooth blur. Shops, mail boxes, parking meters and colors all melting into one.  
A grass on sandy beach behind a crooked white picket fence to the left side of the sidewalk and a empty road and field to the other. Crashing waves mull with the sound of seagull calls. The wind rushing past. It's kind of relaxing in an odd sort of way.  
Less that a block till home. I close my eyes as I round the corner taking in the refreshing salty ocean air. Letting all my other sences take over; I speed up wind rushing past my face.

"HEY WATCH OUT!" But it's too late. I fly forward about ten feet landing on the front lawn landing on my back. The guy I ran into is lying on the ground cradling his head in his hands.  
"Oh, no."  
Running forward I jutt over the fence. As I gently roll him over I can see small streams of blood seeping through his fingers. Two gray eyes squint up at me. "I guess this would be a disadvantage of being bald," he whispers. I smile; well at least his sense of humor is still intact. I scoot his left hand out of the way and began pressing my sleeve onto the scrape. Dark red blood clouds the white cotton.  
I press down harder trying to stop the bleeding. After a few moments it begins to slow. "Thank God," I whisper. "I'm going to get help. I'll be back soon." He nods in reply.  
I stand up to go; before I'm even off my knees something worse happens

The sirens start going off.

**Yep cliffie lucky for you I already have the next chapter written and am working on the one after that XP.**

** Review I need them ;( Please XD**


	2. Day 2

Mores

**Mores! XD Hope you enjoy this!** **And I don't remember if I mentioned this but in this story Aang is 14 and Katara is 15.**

Day 2

The strums of something familiar play softly somewhere outside the thick soup of my brain. I roll over one half-eye open. Aang is sitting on floor playing my brother's old guitar. He looks up, startled. "Sorry I didn't mean to wake you."  
"Its okay, but I thought you played the drums."  
He smiles and shrugs," I'm multi-talented". I sit up rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. "How long was I out."  
"A couple hours, so do you do anything."  
"Not really, Ummmm...I used to paint. Why?" He shrugs again," Used to why'd you stop?"  
The bruises on my heart throb a little, I look away," my mom died." I whisper. I bite my lip trying not to tear up.

He nods solemnly. "I'm sorry." He begins to strum again something sadder and softer this time. "They say music is a melody to life, there's a song for every moment whether you're crying of laughing." There was a certain glow about him in that instant something magical. I blink the thought away, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes.  
"Did my dad or brother call." I ask.  
"Your dad did. I told him you were sleeping and he told me to tell you he sends his love and your brother says Suki says hi."  
"Oh," I sigh," what about your family?" He stops playing. "I talked to my grandmother for a few minutes this morning. She's and grandpa are okay."  
"What about you parents?"  
"I have a mom in New York we haven't been able to get a hold of her in the last couple months."  
"Oh, what about your dad."  
He shrugs and looks away, "Never met him."  
I hug my knees and breathe in the musty sent of the old green blanket. "I'm hungry." I stand up and wander into the pantry. Wow I can believe how dusty this place has gotten. Dark shelves and unappetizing canned food stares me in the face. My backpack had groceries in it but I really don't feel like cooking. Twelve-year-old canned pears or Road Cod Stew. Road Cod stew it is.  
I walk out of the pantry and begin searching for it. Aang is still playing the guitar. "Looking for something." He asks. "Yeah,"I answer," my backpack, it has some groceries in it."  
He points," I think I saw it over on the stairs."  
My old navy backpack sits lonely on the third step. The groceries are ok despite being left out all night. I start going through cabinets looking for a big soup pot.  
"Hey,"Aang asks," Have you seen my camera."  
"Yeah I think it's in my bag." I say still rummaging. Het gets up and reaches for my backpack.  
"You saved my camera. Thank you." He says. I pull my head out of the cabinet and sit up. "You're welcome."  
And snap he takes a picture.

What'd you do that for?" He shrugs, " I don't know you just looked like you in that instant." "What?" I stammer. He plops down on the cot behind him, "Come here I'll show you." I scoot over beside him and focus on the camera screen. He pushes a few buttons and the screen lights up revealing a picture of Sokka. His eyes are closed and he's laughing his guts out. Classic Sokka. "My brother, what about him."

"He looks like him, he's representing everything he's about in this picture." Aang is right when I think of my brother I think of him either laughing, with his mouth full, or playing his guitar. Aang pushes another button. The screen shifts to a picture of Zuko and Mai. Her arms are draped around his neck. Oddly both are smiling.

"See how the light and dark areas create an illusion of merging lines making everything seem smooth."

"Light and dark, like them."

"Yeah, so unhappy and glum yet when they're together they just glow. All the problems they face just smoothed over as though they don't matter near as much." I smile. They do glow. Neither has really ever been happy. Zuko who has a mom left when he was ten, an evil sister, and an absent Dad who cares more about money than his own two kids. And Mia with parents that pretty much ignore her and an older brother who died during the shellings last year. I wonder about her little brother though.

Aang pushes the button again. This time the picture is of some woman with bleach blonde hair and a little too much makeup on. She is staring out a kitchen window over a sink morning light pouring in on her skin.

"Is that your mom?" He frowns a little. "Yeah."


	3. Day 3

"So what happened to her," I ask," why aren't you living with her now, you know in New York?"

"She looks normal there doesn't she?" He takes a deep breath," I wasn't lying photographs don't lie, but they can mislead. My mother had been a high school drop out then became an i _exotic dancer_ as a way to make money. When she was young she did okay but as she got older the _money of the streets_ was always more alluring. After a couple of years I was born that's when she started to get in over her head. Since she couldn't exactly take me everywhere she went and she didn't have money for a nanny so she left me alone sometimes for days on end."

Aang took another deep breath, " Social services got on to things after I was found making a pb&j sandwich in a grocery store. I was eight. Been back and forth between my grandparents and my mom ever since. 'Cetp for the last six months that is. Dropped me off one day and didn't come back."

"Oh." That's all I could say. There was something in the woman's eyes, though. They twinkled quietly with sorrow like they'd given up crying a long time ago. It's hard to explain. Aang's eyes are so different. Pure and beamy. I shift my weight to see them. Aang is watches at the camera's screen sorrowfully.

His eyes are glassy. He blinks the tears away. Turning the camera off setting down he asks, "So what about you, what happened to your mom?" I breathe in and out quickly biting my lip. "What about her," I ask staring at my hands. "How did she die?"

I close my eyes tight. Deep breaths just take deep breaths. "My mom used to be a poet. When she was young her poems were all about love and happiness. But quickly they became sadder and about loneliness and desperation. She stopped sleeping and eating almost altogether. She refused to see a doctor. "

"After a couple weeks later she discovered she was pregnant. I've never seen her so excited. Everything went back to normal for a few months. But she lost the baby. And she got depressed again. Stopped talking, eating and she'd sleep all the time…." I couldn't go I, I couldn't say it. "She killed herself. Jumped into the ocean and never came up for air."

I feel my insides collapse. The bruises on my heart eat me alive. I hug me knees and begin to cry uncontrollably. Then something strange happens. Aang wraps his arms around me. "I'm so sorry." He says.

**So yes this should have about five chapters and an epilogue in all. I hope to get the next chapter up soon. Reviews are welcomed! Toodles.**


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